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iPv6 Settings for Time Capsule/Airport Extreme

I've learned that iPv6 has been fully enabled in my state, Maryland, by my Comcast isp. I have now changed my TC iPv6 settings to Automatically and Native. Previously I could only connect to iPv6 sites by using Tunnel mode. Now I can connect in Native and get a 10/10 on those test sites. So everything seems to work correctly. However there is one setting that I'm unclear about. It's the Enable iPv6 connection sharing. I've turned that on and also have block incoming connections toggled on. Do I need to have that connection sharing function toggled on?


All my devices connect to the TC by wifi and all are making the proper connection but I'm still wondering about that sharing option.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Dec 18, 2013 9:50 AM

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10 replies

Dec 18, 2013 10:21 AM in response to Pappasbike

By default your TC has IPv6 networking enabled and set to the Automatic option. This option will take on whatever settings Comcast is providing you for IPv6. The Native setting lets your base station know that the network supports IPv6 directly. Again this is a default setting.


However, when Native is selected, I would have expected that you could not enable or disable the "Enable IPv6 Connection Sharing" setting ... and should be off. It would be enabled for Tunnel mode.

Dec 18, 2013 10:38 AM in response to Tesserax

Until just recently I had my settings as link-local only. When I read about iPv6 around the web I switched it to Automatically and initially Native. But I couldn't connect to anything. I started researching the issue and found that Comcast had enabled iPv6 in my area but it was not currently in use. Saw some suggestions about Tunnel mode, so that's what I did and it worked. The sharing option does also appear in that configuration as well. But a few days ago I read that Comcast now had it in use in my state so I experimented today by switching it to Native and everything works but there is still that check box to allow connection sharing which is currently checked.


I actually made the settings change from my iPad with the Airport Utility app. After changing the setting to Native I manually selected the sharing option which brought up several other things such as the "block incoming iPv6" connections which was toggled on. I left it that way. On my mac Airport Utility only has a check box for the connection sharing. There was no block incoming option showing although maybe that's because I had it enabled from my iPad.


Anyway are you saying that the sharing option should be unchecked or toggled off?

Dec 18, 2013 11:27 AM in response to Pappasbike

I actually made the settings change from my iPad with the Airport Utility app. After changing the setting to Native I manually selected the sharing option which brought up several other things such as the "block incoming iPv6" connections which was toggled on. I left it that way. On my mac Airport Utility only has a check box for the connection sharing. There was no block incoming option showing although maybe that's because I had it enabled from my iPad.

Ah, ok thanks for that. I was using a Mac when I played with these settings.


Anyway are you saying that the sharing option should be unchecked or toggled off?

It would be off by default. However, if you plan on sharing the IPv6 connection with devices on your local network, then you will want to check/enable it.


Remember in Native-mode your TC is completely exposed on the IPv6 Internet network.

Dec 18, 2013 11:46 AM in response to Tesserax

As far as being exposed by the iPv6, I believe that's what the "block incoming connections" setting is for. So if I disable the share option, that will affect my devices being able to make a connection? They all use wifi to connect to the TC. I'm just trying to disable whatever I don't need. However that block incoming connections option only appears, at least on my iPad, if sharing is enabled. So it seems as if that sharing option is necessary. Just trying to get my head around all this and not enable something that will give me issues.

Dec 19, 2013 10:27 AM in response to Pappasbike

I have to admit I am a bit confused to the proper use of these settings.


On my Mac, running OS X Mavericks, the "Enable IPv6 Connection Sharing" setting is there but not the "Block incoming IPv6" option. Both of these were available on my iPhone 4's version of the AirPort Utility.


I believe the intent of the first option was to replace the IPv6 Mode option used in the earlier (5.x) version of the AirPort Utility.


I noted that when this option is enabled it had the same effect as setting the IPv6 Mode to Router which automatically enabled the Block incoming IPv6 connections option. When disabled it appears to have the same effect as setting the mode to Host. The block option would not be necessary in this case.

Dec 19, 2013 11:12 AM in response to Tesserax

I believe you are correct. I've been experimenting. You're correct that the "Block incoming connections" does not show on the mac's version of AU but does in the mobile version if you select "Enable Connection Sharing". I find that to be more comforting than just assuming it's enabled on the Mac version. The latest Apple support document that I could find is somewhat vague. Essentially telling you to leave everything in their default state without actually spelling out what the default is, and also saying you can disable the connection sharing if you want. That's not very helpful, but I went ahead and disabled it on the mobile AU and everything below that just disappears.


After that I tried to connect to the test sites and couldn't, so that essentially shuts you off from any ipv6 network. I left it that way with the Automatically and Native options selected. If I play around with it again or find that I need to have access to an ipv6 site, I'll change it back. At least I now know that it works in the Native mode. Some months back it didn't and I had it set to Tunnel mode, that must have been before Comcast fully implemented it here in Maryland. Interestingly I asked this questions on the Comcast help forums and someone from Comcast just said he was a Windows man and couldn't help much!


Also it seemed when I had the sharing option enabled there appeared to be some lag in my connection. I was playing around with some of the speed test sites and got quite variable results, lower than I normally get. When I disabled the sharing and tried again it seemed everything was back to normal.


It also seems as if Apple is intentionally not being helpful with this, stating "that most computers do not need access to this" or something to that effect. Form what I've read, in some earlier versions of Airport Utility, earlier than what we have now, iPv6 settings had been removed altogether. I saw where others were reverting to an older AU software version to regain those settings.


Anyway thanks for your help, I'm just going to assume that for the time being I don't really need to have this active. Unless I'm still not understanding something, which is likely!!!

Dec 11, 2014 4:36 PM in response to Pappasbike

I have a Time Capsule (TC) in bridge mode behind an ASUS (model RT-AC68U). The ipv6 is enabled on the router and on my ISP. All the devices on my network (connected to the ASUS router) have ipv6 addresses and work fine on ipv6.

I set the time capsule to Automatic ipv6 configuration and Native ipv6 mode. However, the TC does not seem to receive an ipv6 address.

Any suggestions?

Apr 25, 2015 10:47 AM in response to Pappasbike

Comcast actually has the configuration guide to enable IPv6 on Airport Extreme http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/download.php?file_id=35

Comcast enabled IPv6 in my area, so I wanted to try end to end IPv6


On a Mac

The key things to configure are

Airport Utility

Edit -> Internet -> Internet Options ->

Configure IPv6 : Automatically

IPv6 Mode: Automatically

Enable IPv6 Connection Sharing (You need to enable this)


And most importantly to protect yourself from incoming IPv6 connections


Edit -> Network -> Network Options

Block incoming IPv6 connections (THIS IS CRITICAL)


With these settings I am able to run Native IPv6 end to end.


I even switched the DNS to be IPv6 only and saw the IPv4 fail and IPv6 work. Not too many web sites accessible though.


With these settings even my iOS devices picked up IPv6 automatically.


On you Mac however ensure that


Open Network Preferences -> Advanced -> TCP/IP -> Configure IPv6 = Automatically


If you do not do this you Mac will not pick up an IPv6 address.


After doing all of this goto http://test-ipv6.comcast.net/ and all the IPv6 tests will pass.

iPv6 Settings for Time Capsule/Airport Extreme

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